Park Your Chair, Watch a Flick

Factory on 5th Art Space started hosting its very own “Civic Cinema”-esque outdoor movie screenings last week. Every Thursday night for the next month, Factory will show a classic feature film in the parking lot (1715 Fifth Street NW) starting at dusk (around 8:30 p.m. these days). This Thursday, July 3, it’s The Blues Brothers. July 10, it’s The Usual Suspects. July 17, it’s Casablanca. July 24, it’s The Magnificent Seven. Bring a lawn chair, cooler/snacks and a suggested $5 donation. For more info, just log on to factoryon5.com.

I just want to pinch his little metal cheeks

By Devin D. O’Leary

You may think you have a low tolerance for cute. But all your set-in-stone prejudices against Hello Kitty stickers, Precious Moments figurines, Anne Geddes photographs, Webkinz, interspecies snorgling (if you don’t know, you don’t want to) and Knut the polar bear cub have done nothing to steel you against the onslaught of adorability that is WALL-E. Honestly, if puppies and kittens could have babies, they’d be hideous, misshapen monstrosities compared to the unassailable cuteness of Pixar’s little robot star.

Better with booze

By Linda Pugh

During its first half hour, Hancock blows away any other superhero movie in a boozy blast of fresh air. It’s better than Iron Man, better than Spider-Man or X-Men or The Incredible Hulk or Hellboy. (Not better than Batman Begins, but so few flicks are.)

Fourth of July around the dial

By Devin D. O’Leary

Let’s just go ahead and assume that the safety-conscious officials in our county will be banning nearly all fireworks in an effort to fend off bosque fires, leaving us naught but sparklers, black snakes and boxes and boxes of punks (the stick of coated wood kind, not the Johnny Rotten sort) with which to entertain ourselves come Independence Day. If we can’t consume mass quantities of beer and then blow things up in our front yard, what is there to do on the Fourth of July?